THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph by Knud Sorensen
ONCE IRKUTSK TRADED HEAVILY WITH MANCHURIA
Leading, as it does, from Russia across Siberia and over Manchuria, the long Europe-to
Asia railway system in normal times would transport enormous through freights; but since
the U. S. S. R. placed all export trade under official control, such traffic has dwindled. Many
furs are smuggled from Siberia into Manchuria, but eastbound through cargo on the railway
is very light. An ever-increasing volume of goods, however, imported via Vladivostok, reaches
Manchuria over the east end of the line. A market stall in Irkutsk.
vincial governor offered a bonus to cer
tain robber bands, it is told, if they would
take the field and turn back the armies of
Nippon! The bandits, probably mindful
of the good will and cumulative experi
ence at stake in their own business, de
clined to become mercenaries!
Swift as the wave of modernism is,
one sees it most, of course, in cities. At
Mukden, for example, is a new American
bank building typical of Yankee bank
architecture. More than 7,800 new build
ings were erected last year, using much
American hardware and plumbing and
including a dozen or more large struc
tures of steel and concrete (see pages
396, 413).
As the American bookkeeper has his
calculating machines, so the Chinese clerk
employs his abacus. One hears the click
click of its little round wood balls in every
bank and in the back of every big store.
Russians use it, too; and often an Ameri-
can or British accountant, caught away
from his adding machine, calls in a native
with his "pagan" counting apparatus to
verify a sum.
Through Vladivostok and up to the
Chinese Eastern comes an ever-growing
stream of imports, with American foot
wear, haberdashery, cotton goods, fancy
belts, wrist watches, and fountain pens;
and in Harbin, too, every aspect of mod
ern life, from radio to Russian grand
opera, but always the contrasts! A con
sular report solemnly says: "Recent con
struction work sees the completion of a
broadcasting station and the beginning of
a temple to Confucius"!
Farm tractors are popular, especially
in regions where horseflies are bad. But
they are still very rare. It is the millions
of shaggy ponies and the ubiquitous mules
which do the work.
Of all familiar farm scenes in Man
churia, the shoeing of the family mule
420